Stephen Kokker, Canada/Estonia
Latest Participant at the World Championship in Massage 2019 is Stephen Kokker, who was born in Montreal and is now based in Tallinn, Estonia, home of his ancestors. IMA has asked him to tell about himself.
I am approaching the world of touch from a slightly different angle – unlike most of the other participants, I have rarely worked as a professional masseur (although I have just this May 2019 opened a small space dedicated to this). While I have regularly taken massage courses around the world for twenty years, I always considered it more a serious hobby, whose skillsets I could use to better communicate with my friends and loved ones. My main profession – running a teashop and tea importing company and studying the art of ceremonial tea – has also kept me forbiddingly busy.
Yet I am dedicated to conscious touch and share my touch with many, regularly. I also give workshops on conscious touch, sometimes in combination with a meditative tea ceremony. I have studied and incorporate various styles of massage into my sessions: myofascial energetic release, lomi lomi, Yumeiho, Thai massage, visceral/abdominal massage, thanatotherapy and other modalities like reiki and chair massage. I also integrate ideas, concepts and techniques from more shamanistic practises of body-mind-spirit integration.
I call my sessions Body Trips as via touch, sounds and aroma, I try to set the stage for a person to shift their state of consciousness enough so that healing happens naturally,on a level deeper than their or my mind can go, and to set the stage for their own subconscious to speak. At the very least, it’s a sensorial journey!
I look forward to sharing space with incredibly dynamic and talented massage therapists in Copenhagen!
The International Massage Association look also forward watching Stephens skills at the World Championship in Massage in June 22-23, in Copenhagen.